The lightest of the nights
by Lottums
Summary: After fleeing from the States, the Cullens are hoping to settle down to a new life. But life is never quite for those of the supernatural world, and no matter how far away the move, trouble is always likely to follow.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

As the sun began to rise, we knew things were not going to plan. I had this feeling of dread within myself that something very bad was going to happen to one of us and soon. I couldn't explain what it was that I felt; I just knew that it was fact.

I looked around at the faces of those I call my family and wondered where the casualty would be falling within us. I was also aware that if one of us were to fall, shortly after, a second would follow. Today our family would crumble into pieces. We could have walked away; we could still be living a perfectly happy, normal life. We were taking the sacrifices for both our family and friends, and even those who had no awareness of our existence, but we wished to help anyway.

From the look on everyone's faces I knew I was not alone in my thoughts. We were all aware of the sacrifice we were about to make and still found it our obligation to help.

At that moment, all our minds were perfectly in sync. The predator's eyes narrowed and a snarl escaped from its lips. This growl echoed out around us, surrounding us and preparing us for what we were about to embrace, as at least fifteen others emerged from the trees.

We made a circle formation, our backs facing the inner of the ring. I squeezed my love's hand one last time, knowing that it could be the last, and let my love flow through in this one small gesture. We let go and all crouched down simultaneously.

And then, without a word from any of our lips, we knew what we had to do and we all lunged forward.


	2. Running

**Chapter 1**

The basic routine of my life is a fairly monotonous one; four years in school – that's being a freshman, a sophomore, a junior and a senior – then it's on to six years of college, either actually spent attending lectures or just pretending, you know, for appearance sake. This is how it is if you're put into the group of looking 'the youngest' in our family. If you're lucky enough to be in the older-looking group you enter into the system a year above, and get an extra year at 'college'. Then we move on.

I am currently on my third cycle of this. Well, technically my second, as my first ten years didn't exactly allow me to be caught up in school.

The years of 2006 and 2007 were the most pivotal of my life; it was when I was given everything I had ever desired without realizing that I even wanted it – and then within a few short months it was nearly snatched away. However, due to much planning and help from many others like us, we were able to come out on top.

Because of that pivotal year I sit here now, in the passenger seat of the car, on our quiet drive, in the arms of the most beautiful man I have ever set my eyes on. He put supermodels to shame; I think even the statue of Adonis would be in awe of him. He is not just a beautiful man though, he's much more; he is the most caring, thoughtful, generous, gracious, and loving man I have ever met. This is my husband Edward, and oh yeah, we're vampires.

As well as being changed into a vampire, trading my human life for immortality, I also got the most wonderful and unexpected gift ever: a beautiful daughter, my Renesmee, conceived while I was still human. This was something I never thought was possible due to a vampire's body being frozen in time. My body, however, was not, and therefore made it possible for us to have a child. Half human and half vampire; the most wonderful creation ever brought into this world. I fed on blood to keep my baby alive and, on September the 10th, we were gifted our daughter Renesmee. The pregnancy nearly killed me but I hung in there just long enough for Edward to make the change so I could become a vampire. I was then able to join his family and have him for eternity.

Meanwhile, everyone (human that is) would be under the assumption that we had gone on to live a very happy and wonderful life, while I distanced myself from those I loved. This was mostly a safety precaution, just in case I got 'thirsty.'

We suddenly pulled into the harbor and I was brought from my memories to the present. The rest of our family were already waiting for us. As Edward got out of the car to chat with the others, I turned around to the back and gently shook Renesmee awake.

"Nessie, come on love, wake up. We're here. We have to get out now," I said as Renesmee began to stir awake with a groan. She placed her hand to my cheek and showed me her memory from the past thirty seconds tainted with a large amount of annoyance.

I gave her a small smile to show my sympathy. "Sorry honey, but we have to leave now; we really can't wait to hang around. Even the morning will be leaving it too late."

"It's fine for you leaving at this time – you don't need sleep! Four AM is just ridiculous!" Nessie replied curtly.

"Sorry honey, but come on, I need to get this car in the cargo holder." Renesmee slid out of the car, I moved over to the driver's seat, and drove the car into the open holder in front of me. Once safely in place, I exited the car to join the others.

"Right everything is ready, the taxis are waiting for us just outside, so we better get a move on," Carlisle instructed us.

"You sure everything is prepared there?" Edward inquired

"Yes, I spoke with the realtors before we left and everything is in order. I will have a lot of work on my hands over the next few months," Esme replied.

"What about everything we need now?"

"Don't worry Edward, I spoke with Lewis and everything is sorted, he has destroyed all documentation leading us to our current aliases, and has moved our money without a trail so we cannot be tracked by anyone. You know Lewis, he's good at what he does. I have the new documents here already, it's all under control." Jasper then turned to me, still sensing my annoyance. "Sorry Bella, I know you like to handle these things, but I think under the circumstances it was best that I dealt with them. Don't worry, I won't be doing it again, although it was fun," he added with a smirk. "I know that he'll be only too relieved to be dealing with you again."

I shook my head and huffed at his callousness.

"What about our cargo here? Have we made sure it's going to the right place, and that no one will be able to trace it to us? I mean, I don't want it to end up in the wrong hands!" Edward continued ignoring mine and Jasper's slight banter.

"Don't worry, I've checked it over again and again, it's not going anywhere we aren't and it won't end up in the wrong hands either. I have looked ahead and everything is clear and will go smoothly for us, and even if it didn't and we end up losing it all, it wouldn't be too bad, right? I mean we can just re-buy everything, you know I wouldn't mind doing that for everyone, take the chore off everyone's hands. I can't see why we are taking all this with us in the first place! They're just cars Edward, you can buy new ones!" Alice said.

At this, Edward growled to Alice, "I was actually thinking about the fact that if we left everything behind when our house was searched, they may have found something indicating what we really are. The same goes for it ending up in the wrong hands." Alice rolled her eyes, huffed, and quietly said something along the words of 'fine', giving into Edward's retort. "Plus they are classics," Edward added, receiving glares from Alice.

"Don't worry, we've only taken the essentials and our favorite items," Carlisle comforted her. "There will be plenty of opportunity for you to shop for everything else, and I'm sure we will all need new outfits for where we are going. Besides, Esme will need help with refurbishments"

To this Alice's eyes lit up. "Music to my ears."

"Come on now, we really need to get a move on if we want to catch our flights," Carlisle said.

We swiftly moved out of the harbor and rounded the corner where two large taxis were waiting for us. Edward, myself, Renesmee, Alice, and Jasper got into the first one, while Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie. and Emmett followed in the second.

As we settled into our taxi ride, I began to think about how I had managed to keep everything I have ever wanted, even my best friend Jacob, though I had been sure he would leave me once I had been changed. He was a werewolf after all, and we are mortal enemies. After a couple of glorious months of this happiness, everything was taken away in an instant. After a mistaken identity, the Volturi thought we had raised an immortal child. However, after we made them pause and showed who Renesmee really was and that she was not a danger, they retreated, and we were able to really appreciate what we had, knowing that we had everything.

The next seven years were spent in the town of Forks, Washington (whilst friends thought Edward and I were away at Dartmouth College). This was so we could stay close to my father Charlie, who was aware I was something 'different' once he saw me. My appearance had altered through my change to make me more beautiful to my prey, along with my voice, my movements, and the color of my eyes, all indications of what we really were. We also stayed so Jacob could remain close both to his pack and to Renesmee; which was another surprise for us as Jacob was attached to Renesmee in ways I shall never understand, but once he set eyes on her, his universe changed and now revolved around her. Renesmee was like that, you just couldn't resist her; she was perfect. These seven years were also spent watching Renesmee grow into a beautiful young woman, who after these seven years looked like an eighteen year old, and we knew that she would not grow any more as she was fully physically matured, thanks to Carlisle's meticulous measurements.

I watched as our taxis pulled into Seattle airport and into the departure area of the airport. We all took our hand luggage out and headed to the check-in desks. As we walked inside I saw amongst the crowd a figure of a very large man, reaching seven feet tall, with long dark brown hair tied back with a band behind his head. His russet-skinned face settled its eyes on to our large group and his face broke out into a massive smile as his eyes gazed upon my daughter.

"Jake!" Renesmee yelled as she spotted him as well. She sprinted off into his arms and planted a huge kiss onto his all too willing lips.

After their quick greeting, Jacob headed over to us, Renesmee still in his arms. "Hi guys," Jacob said with a sympathetic smile. A chorus of hi's greeted him, along with hugs from myself, Edward, Esme (who will hug all our family members), and Alice (she had never forgotten the peace he gave her during my pregnancy), and a hit on the back from Carlisle, Emmett, and Jasper. Rosalie continued to pretend he wasn't there.

"Nice to see you too, Rose," Jacob remarked, which was replied to by a short humph.

We made our way over to the check-in desk to get our eight boarding tickets for our flights and two departure lounge tickets, and handed over our new passports, courtesy of Lewis Jenks. Once we were all checked in, we headed over to the departure lounge to wait for our flight to arrive and say our final goodbyes to the two staying behind.

After the seven years in Forks we decided it was time to move on, so we packed our belongings away and moved to the small town of Darrington just outside of Seattle. We chose it for many reasons, first of all it was still fairly close to Forks so I could often visit Charlie, second Jake wanted to stay close to his pack and to Renesmee so he could divide his time between the two, thirdly it allowed us to go to a small school and keep up our inconspicuous lifestyle, as well as Carlisle being able to get a job in a hospital in Seattle. It was also near the forests, enabling us to hunt as often as we needed.

That's another reason why our family of vampires is not like most. Vampires don't usually call themselves a family: they are in covens, or often even nomads, nor do they have surnames. As for our surname and our family, we are the Cullens, made up of Alice and Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett, Carlisle and Esme, and myself, Edward and Renesmee. The reason we call ourselves a family is because of the lifestyle we have chosen; all of us live off of animal blood rather than human, and because of this, making us more human, we are able to form bonds that those who drink human blood would not usually be able to form.

Just then, our flight was announced over the intercom for boarding. A quick set of hugs were exchanged between those staying and those leaving, and everyone headed off to our flight gate. Edward, Rosalie, and I stayed a short while longer just to say our final words. As we watched the others leave I turned around, and at the same time, Edward and I took Renesmee into a huge embrace. I sobbed my tearless cries and then we pulled away.

"You be careful now, Renesmee!"

"Of course I will Mom; I've got Jake here to look after me, not that I need it."

"I know dear, but for the sanity of my mind, please do not go anywhere without him or someone trusted to look out for you."

"Don't worry Mom, I've seen how bad things can get. I will be extra careful, and keep an eye out for you, make sure it all blows over."

"Thank you." We shared a moment's silence, not knowing what to say next. "You'll keep in contact whenever you can, everyday if possible – Oh God, I sound like my own mother, how did that happen?"

"Don't worry love, it's only natural to get protective at this point. I still can't believe I have even agreed to this!" Edward said shaking his head.

"Because you know it's what's best for me," Renesmee replied.

I turned then to Jacob. "You take care of her, you hear me? If I hear that anything has happened, you are the one to blame, no exceptions!"

"Chill Bella, she's safe with me and you know it."

"At least you can finally see where I was coming from whilst you wanted to spend time with Jake back when you were a mere fragile human," Edward said to me sarcastically, to which I replied with a glare.

The intercom then announced the final boarding call for our flight. All of us hugged together. Even Rosalie didn't mind being close to Jake.

She then turned to Renesmee. "I will miss you so much Nessie, you take care and come see us as soon as possible!"

"I will, and I'll miss you too, Aunt Rosalie," and then she whispered, "my favorite aunt," which received an even bigger hug from Rose.

"I'll miss you Nessie, you'll always be in my heart," I said

"Listen to your music if you ever get homesick, and we'll only be a phone call away if you want me to play you something. Though call us about anything, you don't have to hide your homesickness if you're feeling it, just to appear independent. I know I will miss you terrible, more than I can imagine. Keep safe," Edward added.

"Don't worry Mom, Dad, I'm in good hands, I'm safe here, now call me when you land. I love you, and you, Rose, and send my love to the others."

"Wish everyone the best from me as well," Jake said, a little sadness residing in his voice. I'm sure he was also a little distressed to be losing the family he had built up over the years.

"We love you both dearly," Edward and I said. One solitary tear made its way down my daughter's cheek as the final goodbyes were said. Edward kissed her on her cheek and I followed suit, also kissing away her tear, her wonderful scent passing through my lips.

And with that, we parted from my daughter and my best friend, and headed off to the gate to board our plane, marking the beginning of the start of our next new life.

* * *

**A/N:**

**I just want to say a huge thank you to my Beta Boufanu, who without her I would not have written this story; actually I would not even be in the world of fandom or even twilight for that matter! And a massive thank you to my other beta antebellum, who puts up with my constant improper use of the comma, and persists though it trying to sort me out! Also a thanks to Samantha88 who reads and encourages!**

**Hope you enjoy my first hand at writing, seriously I have never written anything fictional before. Please read and review!!**

**Lottums**


	3. New Turf

**Chapter notes: **

**Sorry this has taken so long for this next chapter to come out. I have been working with a second beta and we were getting it fit to go on , so all the grammatical errors have been fixed in previous chapters.**

**If you prefer to read it on twilighted the link is on my profile**

**Or come join me on the forums (link on the profile)  
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**Disclaimer - Stephanie Meyer owns all things twilight.  
**

* * *

Chapter 2 - New Turf

As we settled down into our first class seats, the panic started to settle in at the thought of leaving my daughter. I looked over to Edward who was staring out of the window, a frown crossing his perfectly formed face. I stretched out the bind around my brain to encompass Edward's mind. _Did we make the right choice?_ I thought, before bringing back my bind.

Edward jumped slightly at the sudden entrance of my thoughts to his brain; it still shocked him occasionally when he was deep in thought and I took him off guard.

"Well it wasn't really our choice to make, love. It was what she wanted and we had to respect that." He whispered to me so humans couldn't hear us.

Alice then leaned over the aisle to me. "I've looked ahead and she's going to get home fine, I cannot see any trouble. She's safe with Jake and the others; we know they can be trusted."

"I know, they're our family too," I replied.

I saw Alice tap Jasper, who was already immersed in a book, on the shoulder and tilt her head slightly over towards Edward and me. A sudden feeling of calm seeped through my body, washing away all of the feelings of anxiety and worry. I was slightly annoyed at the manipulations of my emotions, although I was grateful as I knew there was nothing that I could do now.

"Thank you Jasper," I said sincerely, and settled back into my seat for our long plane journey ahead.

After we had moved from Forks to Darrington, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett all joined Darrington High School as freshmen, as Alice didn't want to be left for a year on her own. Edward and I, however, felt that due to our extreme feelings for one another, we should miss high school as we didn't think we would be able to focus, what with our minds otherwise preoccupied. Our days were spent with our Renesmee and then in the evenings, Jake or Rosalie would spend time with her whilst we had the evening to ourselves in a separate house just a mile away, down the river, from the Cullen household. Then when it came to morning, when everyone would depart for school or work, we would go back to Renesmee. Occasionally Jake or Rose would offer to stay with her for longer and we could have a bit more time for just the two of us, but we never wanted to spend too long away.

Although at this time Nessie was fully matured and didn't really need a babysitter, she was never left alone. We all craved her attention and she adored us anyway, so it was never a problem. After the ten years in Darrington, Edward and I were finally starting to be able to focus on more than our passion for each other and decided that on our next move we would all (Renesmee included) attend high school.

Just over five hours later, our plane landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We exited the plane with our hand luggage and headed to the departure lounge to wait for our next flight.

I took out my cell and phoned Renesmee.

"Hi Mom."

"Hi dear, how are things going? Have you settled in yet?"

"Yeah, everyone from the pack helped Jake move his stuff over this morning and it's already starting to look like a home. We'll be collecting mine from the storage unit in a couple of hours. We're just having a late lunch at the moment, with everyone jammed into our kitchen. Everyone say hi to Bella, she's on the phone."

A chorus of 'Hi's' and 'Hey Bella's' were shouted to me.

"Say hi back from all of us."

"Will do."

"So who's the lunch courtesy of? I hope you're eating too, I don't like to think of you not getting enough to eat, and those guys prefer their 'normal food'."

"Emily came over and is cooking for everyone. You know how she loves to cater for us, and of course I'm eating enough, I could never say no to Emily's cooking," Renesmee replied happily.

In the background a 'why thank you' was said from Emily.

"Good, and how's the house, dear?" Esme and Alice made their way over to me to listen in. "I think Esme got everything to your liking. She's standing next to me now waiting to hear your verdict," I asked tentatively.

"Oh it's perfect; it's exactly what I want! Feels very homely and I can see right over the sea. Thank you so much, Esme. And Jake loves it, he can't stop talking about the garage you built him for his cars," Nessie replied knowing that Esme could hear her, even though I had the phone to my ear.

"You're welcome dear, anytime, and if you ever need anything for it, just let us know and we'll get it right away," Esme said joyously.

"What about her closet? What does she think about that?" Alice chirped

"Oh Alice, of course it's the best bit of the house! No one will ever get to see me in the same thing twice!" Renesmee said delightfully.

At this news, Alice looked as if she was about to bounce off the walls with excitement. Trust my daughter to love clothes just as much as Alice. It's like there's a bit of everyone of our family in her – probably why no one could resist her. Although the fashion shows and photographs probably didn't help from when she was a child, that Rose and Alice put her through.

"It's great to hear everything's going well and you've already settled in. I am afraid we have to go now, our next flight will be leaving soon. I will ring you tonight when we're home and we have everything sorted. Give our love to everyone, and everyone here gives their love to you."

"OK Mom, I will speak to you later, love you."

"Love you too dear," I said and I hung up the phone.

We gathered our luggage and went to the plane. Once again we settled down for the journey in our first class seats. Because our family was so large, we took up almost half of the first class cabin.

Emmett turned around from the seats in front of us, looking happy-go-lucky as always. "Well this is exciting isn't it? We haven't tried living together out of America before. Well, Bella's hardly been anywhere before, so it must be extra exciting for her." Emmett smiled and winked at me, and I let out a too-quiet-for-human-ears growl in return.

"So excited, I can hardly contain it," I said, heavily plastering it with sarcasm. Edward rubbed my shoulder comfortingly.

"Lighten up Bella, we get to experience more of what the world has for us. I was getting bored of America, it's a good time for a change of scenery." I rolled my eyes as Emmett back around and hugged closer to Rose, whispering to her so low that none of us could even hear it, I didn't want to know what was being said between those two at this point; none of us did, although I think if anyone dared to ask, Emmett wouldn't hesitate to tell us every detail.

Trust Emmett to look on the positive side of everything, I could only think about everything that had gone wrong for us and had caused us to move so suddenly,to have to flee the country and split our family apart. I knew Renesmee wanted her independence, but I just wished it didn't mean we'd have to live in different continents for it to happen.

When we moved from Darrington, we decided we should move further away from the Olympic peninsula. As the years were passing and we were all looking just as youthful, we couldn't afford being seen by an old friend. So we moved to Warrensburg, New York and settled into the local school. I still kept in touch with my Mom, Renée, although this was strictly e-mails and phone calls. I knew she wouldn't be able to cope seeing the 'new me'; she was very fragile in that respect. So we cooked up a story about working around the world and kept her updated on what we were supposedly doing. She was thrilled with the stories and I had a great time writing them. She fully accepted how much Edward and I loved each other and so never minded that we kept to ourselves and didn't see her. She was just happy with my constant updates – I even got to send her pictures of Renesmee after a couple of years, when it would seem more feasible we would have a daughter. Although the pictures Alice and Rose had taken we're done in such a short period of time I spread them over the years to make it more believable.

Once our cycle ended and we moved on from Warrensburg, Nessie asked if we could be slightly closer to La Push, as she found it very hard being away from Jake for long periods of time, though she was not ready to leave our family yet. We found our next home in Jasper National Park in Canada. It was close enough for Jake to go between us and La Push, but not too close we might risk being recognized. Hers and Jake's relationship had fully blossomed by this point and they had become a couple while we lived in Darrington, but our close family bond made her want to stay with us, and Jake was all too willing to split his time between Nessie and his pack.

When we settled in Jasper Park, it was not long before Jake got down on one knee and asked Renesmee to marry him. He even did it the proper way by asking Edward,s permission, not that we all wouldn't have known beforehand, thanks to Edward's mind reading abilities and Alice's ability to see the future. Of course she said yes and Jake came to live with us, but keeping regular contact with the pack.

The ceremony was beautiful; mostly filled with werewolves and vampires, strangely enough. However, there were some humans present, mainly other wives, parents, and family friends. Even Tanya's coven came down. It was a quiet ceremony set on the La Push First Beach with decking placed on the floor, and foldable chairs placed on top, with eucalyptus torches lining the edges, and down the aisle were orchids and lilies with tea-lights placed inside. The ceremony took place under the stars. I had never seen Nessie look so beautiful, her bronze hair pinned up behind her head and the curls flowing delicately from the clips, her cheeks tinged pink, and her eyes glistening against the stars. Her white dress accentuated her figure perfectly; it was sleek and flowed in the wind, a strapped dress with delicate crystal decorated flowers covering the upper half of the dress.

Myself, Rose, and Alice were her bridesmaids and of course Edward gave her away. Jake had Quil, Embry, and Seth as his groomsmen, and Leah was the flower girl. An added wonder was that Charlie wanted to be the one to read the vows; he got a clerical license especially for the ceremony.

After the wedding, everything was moved around at the usual vampire speed, and the reception was laid out with tables and chairs and even an area for dancing. Edward's Steinway grand piano was brought down and he played a song he wrote for Nessie and Jake's first dance. Everything was perfect and not one complaint was made about the werewolves and vampires having to spend the whole evening together. Alice had once again done a fantastic job. Jake was officially welcomed into our family, not that this was ever denied beforehand.

In a little over seven hours from take-off, we suddenly landed with a thud and I was pulled from my train of thought. I looked out the window and although it was August, it was tipping it down with rain.

"Well, home sweet home. Come on guys, let's go check out or new digs," Emmet announced.

"So this is England? Well it lives up to expectations of being dismal," Rosalie remarked.

"This is only Heathrow airport. England's a beautiful place, just you wait to see where we're living," Carlisle said, and then added in a whisper just for us, "Also, it rains a lot. It's more often than not cloudy, there's animals to hunt, and if we need anything larger to settle us we can just go away for the weekend, as we did in America. I thought this would be the next best place."

"Don't forget that London is one of the fashion capitals of the world! We even moved here in time for London fashion week," Alice squealed and I groaned, knowing that I was going to be dragged along with Alice and Rosalie on yet another one of their shopping excursions.

As we regained our luggage and found our pre-booked cabs, we started the final journey to our new home.

"What is the place called, this new area we're moving to?" I asked Edward, having not actually paid attention to the planning of the relocation, as I was worrying too much over how Nessie and Jake were going to cope with being so far away from their family.

"The New Forest. It's one of the national parks here; we thought it was best as there are wild deer, horses, donkeys, and cows." To anyone else, and that included our cab driver, this would seem like a perfectly innocent remark; however, we knew that this was for our hunting needs. "Esme has found us a perfect house in the middle of it, completely hidden away in the forest and I'm sure the renovations will start immediately."

At this, Alice, who was sitting next to me, turned with a huge grin plastered over her face.

After a couple hours of listening to Alice and Esme debating over color schemes and layouts of the new house in the front of the cab, we pulled up to the edge of the driveway.

We paid the cab drivers, including a generous tip. Grabbing our luggage, we walked up the driveway to our home. The driveway was gravel and twisted around large ash trees. At the end of the drive it opened out onto an extensive lawn with the driveway running up the middle of it. In the center was situated our new home.

It was a large red-brick country house, although I thought house was an understatement; it was a mansion. It was two stories high, with ivy elegantly creeping up the sides of the house and around the large sash windows. There were three sets of these along either side of the centrally placed doors, flanked by a wing on either side with two more sets behind these. I was pretty sure the building went just as far back as it did along; it was one of the most extravagant buildings we have lived in, compared to the more modern mansions previously chosen by our family.

This was more my taste of home; it made me feel as if I could actually be living in the Jane Austen era. I loved it. I turned to Esme. "Wow! So maybe there are upsides to living in England, although I am starting to wish I could live on the Yorkshire moors where Cathy and Heathcliff lived or maybe Hertfordshire along with the Bennets."

"We thought you would like this house, knowing your love of English literature," Esme replied. "Well, we better start getting ourselves acquainted with the house and start refurbishments, we have a couple of days before all of our stuff will arrive. Why don't you all go and choose your rooms?" She said passing us all keys to the house.

And just like that we were like children again; we all glanced in each other's directions, and then sprinted to the house as fast as possible in hope of getting the best room to suit us. Luckily for me Edward was the fasted out of us, so he managed to get up to the house first, but also meant he had to unlock it. Once he had done this we had all caught up, then it was the fight to get through the door first. Alice, being the smallest, managed to wiggle her way though, closely followed by myself. She threw herself up the stairs in the center of the large open hallway; she took a right and made her way to the room at the end of the long hallway. I halted and looked at her. She was smiling widely.

"Damn it, Alice, I forgot about your stupid abilities, you knew which room was going to be best, you've seen them all before! Please tell me which one will be the best for me," I begged as Alice just continued to smile. Everyone else was still fighting to get through the door way, which I was sure they were going to destroy soon if they continued fighting like that, apart from Jasper who had stopped, knowing he already had his room.

"Ours is the one to the left of Alice and Jasper's room," Edward called to me, looking into Alice's thoughts and seeing which one we would want.

"No fair, Edward! I wanted her and Emmett to fight for that one; it would have been so much fun! You would have won it anyway, Bella," Alice added.

The fighting at the foot of the staircase ceased knowing that the best rooms were taken. Rose and Emmet could take their time in choosing their room as they knew that Carlisle and Esme would just take what was left over.

"Damn it!" Emmett boomed, thumping his fist into the wall.

Edward came up alongside me and slid his arm around my waist. "We're never going to hear the end of this! He's going to be challenging us so much over the next few months, trying to gain back his winning reputation. Remember the last time?"

I rolled my eyes and nodded. Of course I did; my vampiric mind never let me forget any details. Last time Emmett lost a challenge it was quite a big mistake on my behalf. Back in Jasper Park everyone was getting tired of Emmett challenging them all of the time, so I came up with a plan that would hopefully put a slight damper on this. I had a plan and all I needed was a little help. So I found Alice; she loved my plan and help me work it all out. That evening while Alice and Rose were working on designing dresses for the upcoming winter formal, Edward was playing piano and I was reading, and Jasper and Emmett had just finished a game of chess, of which Emmett only just won.

"Ha! I win, I am the undefeated," Emmett announced loudly. "Who wants their butt kicked next?" The rest of us just sighed or rolled our eyes. "Come on, no one thinks they can beat little old me? Come on Bella, what about you? Or not feeling so brave since your Newborn strength vanished years ago?" Emmett challenged.

"You know what Emmett, I will challenge you, and you'll see who the real champion of this house is."

"Game on! What we playing?"

"How does a simple game of table tennis sound?"

"OK." Emmett went off into the side room to get the table and racquets, while Jasper, Edward, and I cleared the room, moving all the sofas and tables to the edge. I glanced down at Alice, who was laying stomach down on the floor surrounded by material and threw her a quick smile. Edward's head then spun to Alice, obviously hearing what we were planning, and then he turned to me, eyebrow quirked. He didn't say anything, just smirked and shook his head.

Emmett then reappeared in the room carrying in hand our table and racquets, which we had specially made in aluminum so it was harder to break.

We took up our positions at the table and as I knew I would, I won on the toss of the coin and got to serve first. "First to nine shall we say?" Emmett asked.

"Sounds good to me," I replied.

I served to the right knowing Emmett's next move and on my next hit I got him out. "One to me," I chirped, as Emmett scowled at me.

His turn to serve, I hit it back to the left and he retaliated as planned. However, when I hit it back I heard from Alice, "Hey Rose, could you pass me that blue fabric please?" I knew this meant that Emmett had suddenly changed his mind on how he was going to react on the next hit. But thanks to Alice and my previously thought out plan, those little words meant I knew Emmett's next few moves and how to get him back onto our pre-planned track. And yet again, I won the next point.

The game continued like this, with the occasional hints from Alice of Emmett's moves, such as "should I make this a halter neck", "what about having a corset underneath this dress," or "I can't wait for the new line of Jimmy Choo's to come out."

In the end I managed to make a clean sweep of Emmett, winning 11-0. The plan went perfectly – what we weren't expecting was Emmett's reaction. He went quiet for a few days, hardly speaking to anyone, not even Rose, just caught up in his own thoughts. Edward and Alice both assured us he was going to be alright, so we carried on like normal and Rose just spent her time with the cars while Emmett was brooding. After a couple of days, Emmett finally snapped out of his stupor, but started challenging us to everything in order to gain back his reputation. These challenges were never ending and ranged from blood draining contests to who could get the most obscure words into a homework assignment. It nearly drove us all insane, which I imagine would be quite hard to do to a vampire, and from then on I knew not to push Emmett to his challenging limits again.

With Edward's arm around my side we carried our stuff into our new room. It was pretty much a perfect square, spanning almost thirty feet each way. The room was high-ceilinged and ornately decorated and the walls were paneled in oak. The windows faced onto the back garden and extended to a superb view over the forest.

"How do you think we should lay out our room, my love?" Edward enquired.

"Well, I'm assuming in good old Esme fashion, this wall will be turned into one large window?" I pointed to the windows overlooking the garden and Edward smiled, confirming my assumptions. "So how about you take the wall to the left here for your music collection and I'll have the wall here, for all of my books?" I said, turning back around to the wall with the door we had just come through. I had grown quite a large collection over the years. "And then the other wall we can cover with curtains, the same with the windows for all of the acoustics, which we can draw back when they're not needed, as I could not keep this wonderful paneling covered up."

"This is just one of the many reasons I love you. It sounds perfect. Exactly right for us," Edward replied.

"I wonder what this door leads to," I said, glancing to a door on the only unclaimed wall. I made my way over to it, turned the knob, and let it slowly swing open. "Wow." It was our ensuite bathroom, and it was lavish to say the least. There were two sinks on top of the white marble surfaces, with the toilet, bath, and bidet seated upon the grey stone floor. The cupboards were of light colored ash and a separate shower was fitted in the corner. "It's not like we'll really need any of this, but it is fantastic!" I exclaimed.

"I'm glad you like it here. Shall we go and join the others?" Edward asked.

"Lead the way."

We left our room and walked back down the long landing and down the central staircase. Although we didn't know the layout, we could sense everyone was in the room to our left. The room we entered was obviously the lounge, although no furniture had been placed in it yet. The ceiling was again high set, paneled, and painted white, whilst the walls were covered in a stunning antique wallpaper. Two suitcases were placed in the center of the room and Esme had already laid out her blueprints on top of them. She and Alice were already starting to decide over how to re-design and refurbish our house. Emmett was in the far corner of the room staring out of the window, a look of deep annoyance set on his face; this was probably why Rose was choosing to be with Esme. It was best to ignore Emmett when he was like this.

Carlisle, Jasper, and Rosalie were discussing hunting techniques for our new location. Edward went over to join them while I went over to Esme to help out with the design of the house, and just like that we were settled into our new home to live as a family in England.

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**Chapter End Notes:**

**Again a great thanks to my betas Boufanu and Antebellum, who help me with my big comma problem! Please read and review, I'd love to hear what you think.**


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